10/13/2024
Important article about the mind of a Border Collie. Not all dogs have this trait. The instinct is part of how Border Collies herd their sheep.
Today our breed expert Carol Price looks at a very commonly misunderstood form of aggression in the Border collie breed, linked directly to their working instincts.
ATTACK OR DEFENCE?
Understanding the lunge-nip reflex in Border collies
Although aggression is an issue that should always be taken seriously in any dog - and may have so many different triggers or motivations - often owners and, indeed, the wider public, may not always understand the difference between aggressive responses launched more offensively and deliberately in dogs, to attack, and those which the dog launches more instinctively instead, as a more primal kind of defence response. And the latter can be incredibly common in herding dogs like Border collies.
I call this behaviour in Border collies the lunge-nip reflex. It is a totally instinctive behaviour in the breed, frequently by-passing more conscious thought processes, and the reason it is there goes back to their earliest programming as livestock working dogs. For the dog must have the respect of the livestock they work at all times, and if they do not react quickly enough – in terms some immediate defence reaction – when challenged or crowded in by them, then they could find themselves either badly injured or dead.
Further, once livestock learn that a dog, if challenged by them, will challenge them back, they can become that much easier to manage.
ACTIVATING THE REFLEX
Once we understand, too, the direct connection in the collie brain between some deeper sense of mental pressure, or threat, and the lunge-nip reflex being activated, we can also appreciate why this behaviour so commonly gets deflected, in non-working or pet collies, on to alternative ‘threat’ targets. Like a stranger person, or dog or even cyclists and traffic. Anything actually that comes moving more suddenly into their head space, and is more mentally unnerving to their more primal thought processes and defence reactions.
When dogs are in more restricted spaces or situations – like cars - or tied up, or on a lead – such defence behaviour can also become even more likely or intensified, due to the option of escaping any ‘threat’ by running or fleeing being no longer available to them.
MISREADING LUNGE-NIP BEHAVIOUR
So often collies will get condemned as aggressive or more bad natured dogs in general, as a result of displaying this instinctive behaviour. But in truth this defence reflex can act totally independently of the wider nature or character of a dog, which may otherwise be pretty sound or friendly, especially in contexts where the dogs feels inherently safer or more relaxed.
Lunge-nip defence behaviour is also predominantly a ‘warning’ behaviour, and thus will most commonly result in either the dog ‘air snapping’ or inflicting minimal injury on anyone or anything it nips. Whereas a dog with a greater intent to attack will bite far more strongly and do far more harm. The same is true of dogs who lack sufficient natural ‘bite inhibition’, or who have never had the chance to learn it.
THE EFFECTS OF MENTAL PRESSURE
Every collie can be different, in terms of how strong their lunge-nip instinct happens to be, and how readily or not this reflex will be launched by them. But the key at all times will be first, to recognise how prone your dog is to this kind of behaviour and second, to understand the things that are most likely to trigger it. Then organise your handling and training of your dog accordingly.
Given the direct link in the collie brain between building levels of mental pressure, or arousal, and how readily the lunge-nip reflex will be used, then clearly the aim is to try to keep your dog from entering this more ‘dangerous’ mental zone as much as possible.
Be aware that mental pressure can come from many different sources for Border collies. From higher, or more excessive, levels of sensory provocation - particularly sound and movement (like passing traffic) - or emotional states like fear, anxiety, excitement or frustration. Or a sense in the dog of feeling crowded, hemmed in or cornered in some way by others. Or a belief in the dog that some more vital resource in their life – anything from food or their bed, or specific ‘key’ territory to even their owner – is under threat from a rival.
THE MENTAL THERMOMETER
It can also really help to start seeing your dog’s mind more like a thermometer, in that the higher the temperature rises, the more likely it is that lunge nip behaviours will follow. Whereas the cooler and calmer your dog’s mind, the less likely they are to occur. Then do everything you can to both attain and sustain that cooler mental state in your dog at all times.
This may also involve working much harder on your dog’s general ‘focus’ and ‘impulse control’ training (covered previously on this page) as well as a more gradual familiarisation with, or desensitisation to, sensory experiences that may otherwise unnerve your dog.
For ultimately Border collies cannot be blamed or condemned for impulses and reactions that have been more deliberately hardwired into them, genetically, for generations, and for a specific working purpose. But we have the ability to better understand and control them, with better insight and training.
Meanwhile, much more on the origins of lunge-nip and other working behaviours in Border collies appears in BOOK ONE in my BORDER COLLIES: A BREED APART trilogy – SECRETS OF THE WORKING MIND, more on FOCUS and IMPULSE CONTROL training appears in book TWO – ESSENTIAL LIFE SKILLS & LEARNING – and all aggression issues in Border collies appears in BOOK THREE on BEHAVIOUR:
All text © Carol Price 2024
Carol Price collie books: In the UK from: https://performancedog.co.uk/?s=carol+price In the USA from: https://www.dogwise.com/ # and https://www.cleanrun.com/product/border_collies_a_breed_apart_book_1_secrets_of_the_working_mind/index.cfm In Canada from https://4mymerles.com/collections/books In Australia from: https://gameondogs.com.au/ And in the Netherlands and Belgium from: https://mediaboek.nl/border-collies-a-breed-apart-book-1.html
